Taking a Break and Re-Evaluating Goals

Lisa met her goal of losing 100 pounds by her 40th birthday, but the struggle continues. Click through to read about losing the first 100 pounds or click on the links below to read about the new challenges.More >

Lisa met her goal of losing 100 pounds by her 40th birthday, but the struggle continues. Click through to read about losing the first 100 pounds or click on the links below to read about the new challenges.More >

I tried writing in this space about a month ago and got three paragraphs into it before I gave up. I just feel like I'm saying the same things over and over and not making any real changes that stick. But all I can do is try again and keep trying until I get out of this rut.More >

10/20/10

I've reset my "Get Back on Track!" month to start today. In wanting to synch up with a calendar month, I probably didn't think things through as well as I should have in planning to be very strict with my diet when I had a bunch of special occasions coming up.More >

I had a crazy week last week - my 39th birthday was on Tuesday and I moved to a new apartment on Thursday. I was also managing and promoting more than 30 online charity auctions for the breast cancer walk I'm doing next month.

I knew I would be stressed out, busy, and distracted. So I made what felt like a radical (and very freeing!) decision - to go easy on myself and take a break from my efforts to watch my food and exercise.

I have to say, it was a great success!

I enjoyed some foods I'd been avoiding for months, I drank with my friends on my birthday, and I unpacked my apartment instead of heading to the gym. Most importantly, when the week was over, I was more than ready to get back to my improved habits and focus again on my goals.

I was a bit nervous to get on the scale yesterday morning, but I knew the only way to get back on track was to do my Tuesday weigh-in, accept the consequences of my decisions, and move on.

I took a deep breath and stepped on my newly relocated scale - I was actually down half of a pound! I'm pretty sure that I probably lost more weight last week (but didn't note it since I didn't weigh-in on my birthday Tuesday) and then gained some back -- and I'm totally okay with that!

It made a lot of sense for me to take a break last week. Skipping the weigh-in and indulging a bit was like a birthday gift to myself. By putting the work of my lifestyle change aside for a period and getting the cravings out of my system, it feels easier to focus on the next year as a "new" effort with new momentum and a new target.

From the beginning, my weight loss goal has been tied into my birthday: I started off wanting to lose 100 pounds by my 40th birthday on September 9, 2009. And upon reflecting a bit in the weeks leading up to my 39th, I've re-evaluated my progress and reset that goal.

It feels crazy to commit this to "paper" as it seems very far-reaching to me, but with more than half of my original objective met in less than half the time I'd given myself, it's time to get even more aggressive: I want to lose 90-95 pounds between now and my 40th birthday - for a total of 145-150 pounds lost.

Right now in this journey, I've lost as much weight in one shot as I ever have with a single diet before. And if I succeed in my goals, I'll be at the lowest weight I've seen on my scale in more than 20 years!

Something definitely feels different this time. At the same time that I'm setting a new goal, I'm also accepting that I may not quite make it. And that's okay. I have no doubt that I'll be sticking to the changes I've made, but sometimes the body doesn't respond in the way that we expect it to.

In any case, I'll be living more healthfully than I was last year. And if I don't make it to my goal by my next birthday, I'm determined that it will only be a matter of time before I do.

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